Earth Day 2023:
Mitigation, Adaptation… Celebration

Throughout our more than 60 years of experience, SWA has continually sought ways to protect and enhance our shared world. While Earth Day holds special significance for us, our practice every day of the year revolves around shared principles.

On Earth Day and every day, SWA is combating the impacts of climate change.  To address issues ranging from flooding to wildfire, we’re enhancing efficiencies between buildings and landscapes to conserve natural resources; orchestrating land uses that optimize open spaces to make high-density environments more livable; restoring green environments and preserving open spaces that can provide social amenities; and conserving natural open space and habitat for generations to come.

Our industry carries the responsibility of researching and learning from the ecology, traditions, and materials of a site and its surroundings, and combining them in ways that extend use and life. This applies especially to the overlap of the human-made and the natural. We view “climate infrastructure” as an essential means by which communities can preserve and cherish the Earth. In 2023, we embarked on an endeavor to synthesize and systematize mitigation and adaptation strategies into a “kit of parts” based on solid research and emerging best practices. It’s our hope that these strategies, developed through the lens of “climate infrastructure,” will help not only our own designers, but our clients and project partners to shrink the carbon footprint of the built environment and adapt to the effects of climate change.

To learn more about this evolving work and how it is being employed in real-world challenges, please visit our Climate Infrastructure page. We wish you a healthy and happy Earth Day!